If you're a Mystery Science Theater 3000 fan, you probably know who The Mads are. If not, here's a brief introduction. The Mads are Frank Coniff and Trace Beaulieu; they played the mad scientists TV's Frank and Dr. Clayton Forester. They're still at it, courtesy of an online show hosted by Dumb Industries called The Mads Are Back. Each month (or almost each month), Frank and Trace riff on horrible movies, making them even more... Read more →
Say hello to the spitting gargoyle of Notre Dame, Le Stryge. I took this picture of him in 1998, which was the second time I visited Notre Dame. (The first time was in 1967, when I was 15 and on a study tour sponsored by my high school.) This time I went as a board member of the Society for Technical Communication. After the board meeting, a few of us went to visit Notre Dame.... Read more →
Look, it's a Christmas tree! As usual, it's the best Christmas tree ever! Read more →
Well, it's another late-night Holidailies post! We just finished watching the Caps beat the Maple Leafs in a low-scoring slobberknocker of a hockey game and now Joe is watching (and I am sort of watching) Say Nothing while I put together a quick post. Anyway! Back in the olden days, my parents hosted a post-midnight Mass breakfast for friends and family. Mom went all out making the special Christmas delights: crescent rolls, sea foam candy,... Read more →
Last June we went back to Ireland! Shall I talk about the pubs that we visited while we were there? Yes. Yes, I shall. On arrival day, we had dinner at Brogan's, just down the street from our hotel in Ennis. We ate there last year too. It was packed, so we had to wait a fair bit, which gave us a chance to have our first Guinnesses of the trip. The first day of... Read more →
Taffy is our cat. She is at least 11 years old and could be as old as 15. Here are 10 things about her. She prefers Joe's lap, but will deign to curl up in mine if his is unavailable. She is a hunter. We have to keep her inside in springtime because she will try to catch the wee wrens that land on the balcony railing. She has a few techniques for letting us... Read more →
So my latest hobby is building book nooks. If you don't what those are, go follow that link and come on back. I finished my latest creation this evening. It's a really nice Alice in Wonderland theme, with Alice down the rabbit hole and everything there all cattywampus. Very nice, and very persnickety to build, with lots of wee pieces and pasting and layering and so on. This particular brand is usually fairly easy to... Read more →
So I fell into the world of fountain pen collecting during the pandemic and now have about 40. I have used and enjoyed each one of them. But! I haven't bought a new fountain pen in about a year. I have saved a shit ton of money by not buying new pens, so that's good, especially since my tastes grew fancier with each pen. But I am not made of stone. In early August, I... Read more →
Hi! Here it is, December 1, and that means it's time for Holidailies, an internet challenge that I've been doing for just about 20 years. I think. Anyway and as usual, at least for the past few years, I do this to try and jump-start this blogging thing that I've definitely been doing for 24 years. It doesn't seem to have worked for the past few years, alas, but who knows, maybe this year it... Read more →
Day 24: Sugarplum. Very nice. Day 25: Gingerbread Person. How sweet - a gender neutral marshmallow! It was actually my favorite of the bunch. So here it is, New Year's Eve, and we are hurtling toward 2024. I'm sitting here on the couch, writing the last post for this year's Holidailies. We've got the Little Feat Waiting for Columbus live album on the box, the cat is curling up in Joe's lap, and we've just... Read more →